FTL: Faster Than Light - Augment Tier List - MOST OP AUGMENTS IN THE GAME
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- čas přidán 8. 03. 2021
- Hey Guys, In this video I make a tier list of how good I think all of the augments in FTL are, and whether they are worth using or not! Let me know in the comments below if you agree and what you would rank differently!
Weapon preignighter is a game changer, literally. It changes how the game functions. All those potentially awesome but ridiculously long charge time weapons? Now definitely viable.
Pre-Igniter plus a Glaive is an instant win, absolutely no question about it
@@MMR_LM I had a Glaive beam with the Pre-igniter at the start of the game, and I was able to One volley ships
If / when I get the pre-ignighter I immediately switch to an "alpha strike" build - aka go for as much damage as possible in a single volley with the goal of just deleting enemy ships
Don't forget about the chain laser. Now you first charge is instant, your next charge is half the intended first one, and "critical overtake" is about 20 seconds away. I was lucky enough to get dual chainlasers once. It's probably on my crummy little channel too LMAO it was 9 years ago
@@Mr.Sparks.173based Battletech player
I don't think it changes the rating of the augment at B, but drone recovery arm boosts the hull repair drone to SSS+ tier. You can get a couple repairs out of it then jump before it's done and you get the drone back. Allowing you to get a couple free repairs on every single jump.
I'm pretty sure that has been patched out of the game, as it's considered an exploit.
@@Empiro3 no it's still working even in hyperspace
@@kaynex1039 Google is your friend
sounds like a pretty niche situation.
sorry to be so offtopic but does someone know of a method to log back into an instagram account?
I was dumb lost my login password. I love any tips you can give me
One thing about Reverse Ion Field augment is that the effect of blocking 50% ion damage stacks if you have 2, negating 100% incoming ion damage which goes from "ok" to "op" in a flash. It does take up 2 slots and kinda tricky finding 2 but its happened to me before and definitely worth trying out for the lols.
it also fully blocks the Ion Pulse Star hazard, wich is an amazing advantage, plus if you get pass Flagship Phase 1 and theres a store nearby that inst being taken over, you can sell them since they wont be need for Phase 2-3 of the fight.
That's not really worth 2 augment slots, tho.
@@burpbot7555 most runs I don’t have 3 augments, and it’s amazing vs the first phase of the flagship
Are you sure it's additive? I am sure it's 75% still means pretty much immune to ion.
Each ion augment gives 50%, im certain of that and this is one that stacks.
You: Talking about defense scrambler
Someone probably: *Laughs in Engi ship with drones as its only source of damage.*
Second phase of Flag ship, laughs in Defense drone mk2, also shoots down ur hacking
@@bartoszcojest1792 actually you can slip the hacking drone past any defence drone buy stuttering the power
@@roguedrones a very impressive feat if you don't pause lul
@@roguedrones you can also, with a little luck, shoot down the drone if its path crosses a laser, or beam. Difficult, but its what saved my laser + hacking run vs the flagship
Hacking stun is absolutely hurting your run because if YOUR crew is in them (because of the tactic of isolating a room from enemy crew to defeat them in detail) they also get stunned
I want to give one additional scenario where Advanced FTL Navigation can be helpful - if you find a store that has something you really want and you can't afford it, but you get enough scrap to afford it later on (but not so late that the store gets overrun by the pursuing rebels). You can go back to the store beacon and then immediately head back to where you left off without wasting jumps.
Well he did briefly mention stores as the only redeeming factor for the item. For the same point I believe you make.
Yeah sucks if you lack the 60 scrap for the pre-ignitor because you bought the adv. FTL Nav... sometimes its realy just math. how much scrap can you gain/save with an item. And a Adv. FTL Nav. will never save you the scrap you spend and barely make more scrap then you get from selling it. The only time i was happy to have one was together with long-range scanners because i had to chose between death, probably death, likely death or got a few jumps back and hope that the other path got a store so i can get some healthy crew members.
Yeah, but that's still extremely conditional
@@h-disconnected6612
Not saying it's not, just that it can have a use.
It also can open up opportunities if you just start a sector and notice a terminal branch that you need (like a quest), or if the exit is in an awkward position and passing through it would increase your sector efficiency. Still would never buy it, but depending on my situation, I might hold a free one for one or two sector before dumping it.
Didn't watch this yet, but I think Zoltan Shield, Scrap Recovery Arm and Long-range Scanners all will be in S tier, no doubt about that.
Thanks for fast delivery on this one by the way!
Scrap recovery arm is only viable if you get one for free. I don't think it's worth the 50 scrap considering you could spend that scrap on upgrading a system like shields, cloaking, hacking, etc. Scott Onsie Wilson has a video on the Scrap Recovery Arm that goes into more detail as to why it's not worth it, and I'll add a link.
czcams.com/video/gKAKNYys5XU/video.html
@@narwhal4304 I disagree.
The scrap recovery arm increases the gains for ALL sources of scrap EXCEPT selling things. If you get it during sectors 1 through 4, it will 100% make its money back.
The usual payout for sectors 1 through 2 are about 10 to 20 scrap. With you getting 15% extra, thats 12 to 24 for every time you get scrap.
For most runs, I get about 100 to 200 after Sector 3 to 4, meaning that you can easily pay yourself out after sector 4.
And the more sectors you go, the better it gets! Remember that the usual pay outs for Sectors 6 through 8 are 40 to 60 scrap. Youre going to roll in dough.
MUGANI?!
@@logangagnepain7154 your not playing on hard right ?
@@logangagnepain7154 getting 100% of your investment back just brings you back to square one.
Look at it this way, if I tell you that you can buy a useful upgrade now for 50 scrap, or you can buy scrap recovery arm, what would you choose?
You should always choose something ELSE because of the theory of opportunity cost.
If I grab an upgrade right now for 50 scrap, like you said before about the recovery arm, you'll have it for the rest of the game. Meaning that if you had the option to get it in sectors 1 or 2, you would be receiving the benefit of this useful upgrade for multiple sectors, making you either spend less resources or gain more as you adventure.
But, not only does the scrap recovery arm cost you the opportunity of buying the other upgrade but you have to wait multiple sectors before you even get your money back. Meaning by the time you get your money back you are either BACK WHERE YOU STARTED with one extra augment (that only gets you extra scrap) or only slightly ahead (because you can sell it if at a store)
All of those factors plus it occupies an augment slot without giving any combat benefit. Making your effectiveness in combat 2/3 what it would be for augments.
The opportunity cost of the scrap recovery arm is too great to be top tier.
Backup DNA Bank is a must-have for any ship that has a Cloning Bay. Crew members can’t heal themselves in the middle of battle, so they WILL die more often than one might expect. And when they die, that’s when the enemy ship happens to hit and disable the Cloning Bay. The only time you don’t want to buy the Backup DNA Bank is if you aren’t making the best use out of the Cloning Bay, but for those games, it might be better to just replace the Cloning Bay with a Medbay instead.
The thing about Emergency Respirators is that you can heal in Medbay without oxygen. I agree with the B Tier placement, but I thought it was important to mention.
Not only heal, but it also works on enemy ship. So you can send crew to automated ships without oxygen and if you have level 2 teleporter you can safely return them back before they die.
@@ExtremeMan10 You don't need this augment for boarding autodrones if you already have lvl 2 teleporter lol.
@@kobal6525 You can? Mantis ship is full on boarding ship lol.
@@ExtremeMan10 Only need lvl 2 teleporter to be able to teleport back. Or a rock boarder with lvl 1 teleporter.
For comfort, couldn't you full on raid with a rare combo lantis raiding party, with a crystal crew since they would suffocate abysmally slow but the enemy would suffocate way faster than combat damage alone?
Defense scrambler and mantis pheromones are actually good in some situations. And i think the engi-med-bot dispersal is HIGHLY underrated.
I was thinking that too.
Engi med bot dispersal is a great augment. In many ways its is a more versatile albeit worse, emergency respirator, reconstructive teleport, and fire suppressor (if you have the crew to spare). It's so versatile in fact, I would probably use it over any of the others, unless I was specifically going for a teleporter build.
Scrambler is only good if you're using missiles, you can get drones past enemy defense drones by using the depower-repower trick. And you shouldn't be using missiles anyway so it's a good idea to sell it asap. Pheromones is actually good for any ship, even if you don't board it allows you to respond faster to any situation on your own ship, e.g. fires or boarders. In my opinion, med-bot dispersal isn't that great. While it does help, good micro is more effective, doesn't require power and doesn't occupy an augment slot.
Agreed on the scrambler. Upgraded Engi Med is fantastic. Just transfer power to it selectively and your crew very rarely have to leave their stations to get to the Med Bay. And if you're boarded it's usually smooth sailing.
engi med bot is only for bad players with shit micro
I'm surprised it didn't get mentioned... But the engi medbots are so good for when you get borded. It can make a mediocre fighter hold out for quite a bit versus good fighters
In my third run ever, i killed an automated scout on the first beacon and got a weapon pre-igniter
save to say i have never dominated that hard ever again
(Got stealth in sector 2 and stealth weapons in sector 3: shoot, recharge everything in stealth, shoot again)
That was my first run ,
That was my first win with the kestrel on normal
I really enjoy these types of videos from the games I love. You definitely rate quite a few things higher than I would. I suspect the difference is you don't play on Hard mode where scrap is so much more rare. My thoughts:
--Rock Plating, Titanium System Casing, Slug Repair Gel - If you are taking enough damage to make these useful then you have bigger problems with your run. The sell scrap price is far better for your opportunity cost.
--Reverse Ion field helps a lot with the flagship.
--Fire Suppression may help but most of the time I just use the doors anyways. I'd put it B tier tops.
--Explosive Replicator-- I know from the other video you don't like missiles much. You are right, mostly not great. Explosive replicator plus Swarm or Pegasus. The power of being able to throw 2-3 missiles multiple times per battle has carried a few of my runs. Still very situational though and I hardly ever use those on hard mode if I can help it anyway.
--Hacking Stun does help you. Hack room to stun then teleport your boarding party in = Free Damage. D Tier.
I'd probably move a few more down the list too esp for hard mode. Still I think these would be helpful for Normal as well. Just isn't worth the opportunity cost in my experience. But I play very differently than I did a few hundred of game hours ago and I'm always learning new things to improve my play style.
I would put damage stasis pod on C tier because it "helps". You have the possibility to get a cristal crewmember and a small possibility to enter on a new sector for free, so it's... Useful. Its not literally useless, it's just that you use it a bit half the times you get it and you use it completely like once every ten times you get it.
it relies on the chance of finding the event in one of three sectors, and then finding a zoltan sector to get the event that revives the crystal inside; and that's not even counting the chances of finding a rock homeworld sector in order to get to the hidden crystal worlds. it does have very good bonuses to going all the way, especially when getting to the hidden crystal worlds once will unlock it from rock homeworlds in every subsequent attempt. but getting it in the first place is down to a lot of chance.
@@indieWellie once you get it is not that rare to at least get the cristal crew, and that is pretty useful on itself
It's not something to actively search for, but it's something that could be a good surprise.
@@thefallendeathlord7690
funny you say that. it was originally an easter egg for the people play-testing the game.
I would put it in S because making it into the crystal zone is the single coolest thing you can do in a run
I'd put crystal vengeance in C. I always sell it immediately for the 40 scrap, that's where its value lies IMO
Crystal B, I usually don’t sell it right away unless I can for sure get a weapon online to replace it. Had to use it a lot to defensively finish off auto-scouts in early sectors no matter how powerful my crystal boarders were.
@@MarsStarcruiser Why? Just disable the autoship and run away, you won't get enough scrap to cover the repair cost anyway.
@@bannedcommander2932 I usually get plenty if I can snag a decent weapon from early store but thats kinda a greed thing… and does still need careful evaluation of risk involved for sure.
@@MarsStarcruiser crystal B is when I sell it instantly. Lost too many boarding crews to the random crystal destroying the enemy ship :(
@@coleyinger4631 I’ve only lost crew like that when I goofed and forget to cloak to buy time for my boarders to get back. But what I’m saying will hopefully apply to 2 or less fights. RNG can be a pain sometimes but I do not like showing up to first sector store with any less than 40 scrap(80 after sale), even if every fight so far happen to be an auto-scout :(
So looking at your videos it seems like you mainly play on normal. Based on that I won't comment too much on your list since many of the disagreements would be based on Normal vs Hard mode. On Hard mode you get less scarp so the opportunity cost of buying/not selling augments is way way higher thus really reducing how good some augments are to have. For example, pretty famously the Scrap Recovery Arm is generally deemed worthless to buy on Hard since the opportunity cost of spending 50 scrap early in the game to net more several sectors later is not worth not upgrading your ship in the early game. It is generally considered decent on lower difficulty runs since you have more scrap to play with.
You know I was gonna make an annoyed comment how crystal vengeance’s Is as good as how much scrap it’s worth but if your playing on normal this list makes so much more sense.
Although I tend to disagree with how bad the Scrap Recovery Arm is talked about, I have to agree tho the thing that I still think is for hard mode is that the thing is does is if your run is going well it will just make your run easier. But yea having played and beaten hard mode myself I do agree that it isn't good and really can only be picked up if you are having a lucky run.
@@Pig.._ Learn to make smaller sentences and put more commas, that was hard to read.
Scrap recovery arm gives you blue options when you get asteroid field events, giving you a guaranteed scrap and resource recovery, without any risk of damage.
Repair arm was cool on easy mode when I got it at the last sector before flagship and already had a maxed ship.
I often neglect repair because there usually an even each run that allow you to repair at a discount. Also, hitting repair stations on last sector will fix more than enough, unless your build is bad. I only repair when my ship is on red or below half hull when I have no effective way to stop or disable first turn missile.
Reverse ion also has a 50% chance of negating ion damage from quasars and ion intruder drones
Oh man, I always buy the repair arm when I see it but after watching, I think you're right!
Thanks man, I think you just one-upped my game!
The only for sure S tier augment is Zoltan shield, though you can't buy it. I would put LRS there too if you see it very early. Pre igniter costs too much for the value it gives, unless I get it free on hard I virtually never get it. Agreed that repair arm is hot garbage. Scrap recovery arm is not often worth on hard, kills tempo too much. You need more scrap NOW, not a few sectors later. Can be nice on generous runs though. Along with pre-igniter it's an A IMO.
FTL recharge can be used to dive earlier without getting ASB'd, but higher engine upgrades can manage that too in addition to giving evasion. Similarly, the exit beacon in non-nebula sectors often has a good event. You can go there and then continue on, then dive back with advanced navigation. Getting extra jumps in sectors is useful, but doesn't move the needle enough where I'd place it on this list differently. You can often dive anyway when you want to be diving.
Vent micro makes the fire suppression ALMOST irrelevant. Enough that you're usually better selling it.
Hacking stun is not useless. Hacking weapons is a common target, after shooting them you can block repairs to them. It's not *good*, but it's not useless. I'd generally sell it for a better augment unless I'm running a fire beam though.
Backup battery is a good buy in most games, it's less expensive than real reactor power after first few bars (also prevents it showing up in later shop system pool). Charger is less value.
pre-igniter is s tier
@@alexpowell1184 Too expensive to be anywhere near an auto buy on hard. Look at his description: "always buy if you are able to".
If you buy it that consistently, it will outright cost you the game in some runs. Not S tier material.
Repair arm is great if you get it at the end against the flagship. Usually don't have a location to repair at inbetween fights and if you don't have a drone healing you, you're sorta outta luck. At that point scrap doesn't matter anyway and repair arm is really useful between flagship skirmishes.
@@TheMelnTeam wrong
Super late to the party, but a couple things:
1: Hacking Stun can also see some niche use during boarding runs, letting you stun opponents before attacking them.
2: It's worth factoring in all the damage you prevent as a result of having the Weapon Preigniter. Yes it's expensive, but repairs are also expensive. Being able to disable the enemy's weapons before they can even fire a shot saves you so much scrap in the long run that it can almost pay for itself.
Backup battery is really good for charging systems that are also one-off and temporary, things like the cloaking device, transporters, mind control, etc. You don't want to have actual power locked up in the cooldown of those devices. The battery charger is pretty bad though, even with it the only time you would be using the backup battery twice in a fight is probably the rebel flagship, where admittedly, it's pretty useful.
Fire supression is definitely not more useful than emergency raspirators. If you turn of your oxygen, a fire dies by itself, because it will drain oxygen from the room faster than it can spread, so you don't even need a working door system or airlock to do this. But a destroyed oxygen system can ruin your run if you don't repair it quickly enough, espcially if your doors are also destroyed. Emergency respirators can save you in those cases. Plus, it's really good if you have a teleportation system. You can train your crews combat skill on destroying scout systems and you can go for the abandoned sector.
I haven't investigated mods so maybe they fix it, but I feel like they missed a great opportunity for interesting gameplay by not making augments more impactful. Instead of being plus 10% to a certain stat or other minor passives (excluding the S tier in the list), augments in general just dont impact things very much. It would have been cool to see some stuff that drastically changes a playstyle, like convert all ion weapon damage into laser damage, convert all laser damage into ion damage, experimental shield discharge that pulses an ion wave at the enemy when they bring your shields down, etc. If I can think of it i'm sure others already have, but its a bit of a bummer the devs themselves never added anything like that.
That's super interesting actually! There could be some major conversions to gameplay if they made some wild augments like that. Would really shake up gameplay, if only there was an FTL 2!
Those examples are not good, they're terrible game design, even if you want more impactful augments.
@@burpbot7555 What a useless comment. Empty claim, no solution. Waste of words. I thought of those in like two minutes, the least you could do is counter propose something with your almighty knowledge, dumbass.
Defence Scrambler and Drone Recovery arm are very good, arguably essential for drone builds. Scrambler quite useful for getting missiles through too. Recovery arm indirectly saves a lot of scrap on buying drones from stores. Same goes for explosive replicator on missile builds. Not that I usually have much success on pure missile boats, they are...challenging
great tiers man keep up the good work~
This is a great video and you are my favorite ftl youtuber :)
good list. i think FTL jammer is sometimes good for boarding ship builds cuz sometimes those fights last awhile and it sucks when you F up and fail to bring crew back in time...
I had a run with the fed A where I had a teleporter, cloaking, 2 vulkans, and a weapon pre-igniter all on the same run on hard and just went to town, love the fed A
I enjoy that this came out roughly as a normal distribution lol
good video, its kinda thought provoking for how much difference difficulty, strats + crucially whether you find OR buy an augment really makes to their impact. also what sector you're at when you see it or have the option to purchase it. as always, scrap is king, lol. cheaper augments with plenty of utility like the long range scanners are immense and borderline must-haves. scrap recovery arms if you find one early enough are great too even if it just makes the difference between repairing a little extra hull here and there or grabbing more fuel (you can still sell them for 25 or so scrap at a shop late game, and I think they can let you mine asteroid fields for blue events too) but id never buy one.
weapons pre igniter is one i just about never get on normal with almost all of the ships (cant remember if its one you can even get on quest drops or random events, deffo rare even if it is), just too expensive. it gets you 1x free hit at the start of an encounter but just how useful that is depends on what weapon set-up you have, whether you have cloaking, whether the enemy ship has cloaking (because they can just cloak and charge up at the start of the encounter too which, while very useful in meaning you still get a volley even after they cloak, does mean they can potentially charge up and fire off say a missile or two anyway)
feel like if it was
I looked at one of the Steam guides and I definitely have to disagree with your drone recovery arm pick. Having a Defense Drone 1 makes your ship so much more defensible and not having to pay for it every time is incredibly useful. I can see why it's not S tier because you have to use drones, but I think a DD1 is so good that it makes the augment extremely valuable
Drone with defense 1 and drone recovery arm removes the "FTL Hull Tax" of the leto or armetis missile you always seem to encounter, especially on hard.
I would say emergency respirators can help against boarders if you want to deal extra damage to enemies that are on your ship while your crew is engaged in a fight with them, while minimizing damage to your own crewmembers. Though while I would usually try to lead them into medbay, this can help when the boarders do not move towards medbay and you need to kill them quickly, and lack of oxygen is not killing them quick enough. They can also help if you have a lanius (or multiple) on your ship, whether they are part of your anti-boarders, or an enemy lanius is on your ship. And if you have a crystal, having emergency respirators stacks with the crystal's resistance to no oxygen, allowing them to stay in deoxygenated areas for long periods of time.
I don't remember if emergency respirators work while boarding an enemy ship, though I'm pretty sure they do, in which case, helps immensely with killing enemy crew, or surviving long enough to get out of that room if the enemy ship has upgraded doors (like the flagship) and especially if you include a lanius in your boarding party.
I don't know if someone mentioned this, but the nebulas with ion storms always have either a fight or an event where you are boarded and get scrap. It is always good to jump into those as it is a guaranteed reward.
The list is pretty great, good stuff man.
The only thing I strongly disagree with is the repair arm, which saved my ass on Hard/Medium more times than I can count. The fact that it does not take scrap when hull is full means you just get to 100% and never get lower, which, with the arm is super easy.
The repair arm is A tier for me.
Repair arm is one of the best augments for the flagship. Usually my repair locations disappear completely or are out of range so I cant really go to them. Repair arm heals you up between those fights which gives you that little bit of a safety net. I've won a lot of runs with the repair arm :) but it's pretty terrible if you get it in the first zone or if you have another means of healing, like the repair hull drone.
Damaged Stasis Pod unlocks an extra sector before the final boss. It's a risk, since you have to do the entire convoluted quest, but it might be worth it
Awesome content! Only regret is that you can only make so many FTL tier lists lol
Thanks! Only so many tier lists out there I suppose
Is the sell price of the augments factored in? Because I can imagine an augment that isnt very good, but is a good sell when you get to a store being a nice find. If you're the niche build where its useful then great, otherwise its a nice cash bonus for upgrades.
WPI is a Godsend, especially in late game, just be sure not to fire on the flagship instantly lest you lose that advantage to the flagship’s cloaking.
Repair arm is actually nice when you get it in sector 7/8
you rarely care about scrap when you're late game tbh, and some free heals between the flagship jumps are so clutch
Zoltan Shield Bypass is very helpful on boss 3rd phase. In case I use boarding which I often use, I will get it by any chance.
I will up a tier for defensive scrambler. If you are using drone, hack, or missile, it negate the most effective counter to those 3.
wait you don't like the backup battery? it is so worth it though, like, you can use it to power your stealth or your medbay or your mind control and it basically becomes just as good as having permanent power but it's so much cheaper.
For April 1st, FTL Tier List Tier List? Which lists were useful and which were just arbitrary? XD
I enjoyed the video. Also changed my mind about respirators, i underestimated them before. One strong objection though about placing crystal vengeance so high.
Crystal vengeance must be D tier, the only augment worse is repair arm.
It should be sold at first shop with available for purchase weapons: CV roughly gives one projectile per ten hits. Since hits can be more than 1 dmg per hit, CV gives 1 shot for more than 1/3 hp pool loss. I'm pretty sure CV projectiles always deal 1 dmg, cannot pierce more than 1 shield and can be shot by drones. In this case it becomes useless after S5 since you can't synchronize it with your weapons to penetrate depleted shields. Therefore It should be useful before S6, but if it shot before S6 more than five times, that means you lost 2 ship's full hp pool. That probably means that you spent a lot on repairs and forced into more safe playstyle with lesser rewards, hence your run probably doomed. In a run with little dmg taken it will do nothing, and compared to augs with same problem like plating or casing, have abysmally low chance to save you in critical situation, so have no reason to keep "just in case". Moreover, it is the 1 of 2 augs which have inherently detrimental mechanics, other being repair arm. CV is able to wreak your boarding party. Surprisingly it is not as rare as it seems to be possible. Alternatively, selling CV in first shop with available weapon, almost guarantee that you will be able to buy one. For example selling CV puts you 5 scrap short of buying ion blast and upgrading reactor to power it. Even being one of the weakest and mandatory to sell later weapon it will still be utilized every fight, saving hp and resources, as well as enabling blue options in decent chunk of events.
Repair arm repairs 2 hull points every time you recover scrap and in later sectors it's cheaper than paying for repairs.
I find it very useful.
Sure back in the day, it only healed 1 HP but with the 'advance edition' it healed 2 which makes it far better.
I needed this
Even with more than 100 hours in the game
I know right! I thought repair arm was s teir. this actually helps a lot.
@@jacksonjessup6331 you must be playing on easy then because I'm pretty sure on normal and especially on hard it can ruin your run
Battery charger is OP if you've got level 2 backup battery and a cloak/boarding.
You use it for those systems specifically and then while the backup battery is cooling off the cloak or teleporter is cooling off and then it's usually ready when those are ready to be used again. Letting you use your main power for engines, weapons, etc.
I think Drone recovery arm should be A
If you get a defense drone and the recovery arm it means you never get hit by missiles again.
In my experience a defense I Drone only protects you from a single missile ~75% of the time
Hacking stun is great in the right niche build. Specifically I will boarding drone, breach bomb, or fire bomb. Wait until the crew moves to deal with the threat, then hack the room. Adding in a stun effect just keeps the crew trapped longer and helps to deal more damage. If you are a real mad lad you might even throw in an anti-bio to focus down the trapped crew.
That said I would only ever buy it if I had plenty of scrap and the correct tool set up. Since just hacking alone does a lot of that job already.
Another point about the FTL Recharge Booster, from someone who hasn't played a whole lot but seen a lot of videos, is that if you're in a battle and decide "actually, there's no way I'm winning this, time to jump," then there's a good chance you're fairly late into the game and have the engine power to charge up your FTL drive when you're, like, 13 seconds into the fight, making it rather redundant.
I am not a fan of crystal vengeance or titanium system casing at all but the rest of the tier list I think is really good
...obviously I dont like RNG heavy bonuses lol
Blue event tier list? (Idk how you would realistically rank these but just putting the idea out there).
all of them are S tier.
there is litterally no reason not to pick them they are essentially auto success except in a few edge cases.
Hey! Not totally confident on this, but if you go back to beacons giving away “free samples,” I believe it gives you another free sample, as I actually had this happen to me today. Not sure if it was just a bug or not tho! Just something that might be worth checking out
the thing is tho, if you need to heal crew members youre going to have the medbay on anyways, so thatn not really a downside
defense scrambler should definitely be above ftl recharge booster. the biggest advantage is it prevents enemy defense drones from shooting down your hacking drone, whereas ftl booster is next to useless as it encourages you to flee battles, which if you are playing right you shouldnt be doing at all.
and it should be noted, the flagship has a defense drone in phase 2 so if you dont have flak or some other physical projectile, its going to be next to impossible to get that hack in. not essential by any means, but still really good for hacking gunships.
Sector tier list next! haha
I don't do a lot of boarding runs with teleporter, but hack a room with stun, teleport in, gives crew advantage and speeds up the process on breaking the system? Just a concept, and not sure how actually effective it'd be.
I usually run teleport builds and I would have put the reconstructive teleport lower than you did. Normally I have to wait for the teleport cool down any way, so my troops wait it out in the med bay. Emergency respirators always seem really important (I have lost too many runs due to my oxygen system being destroyed and the lack of oxygen in the rooms around it makes repairs too dangerous.) But I usually don't have the augment space for it.
I dislike automated reloader and shield recharge booster as the amount they improve the systems doesn't ever seem relevant.
Latest run gave me Zoltan shields (the unlock quest) and WPI (random drop)
It *really* wanted me to finish my run.
Med bay dispersal is S tier with a zoltan crew. A single missile hit nearly kills them and boarders can quickly fuck them up. Having 1 bar in med bay always powered on in exchange for not losing the power zoltans give by moving from their rooms is more than a good trade.
Defense Scrambler is good for hacking. Especially on the flagship to get that shield hack.
Definitely fair, other than that situation, I had to put it in a lower tier. Has its uses, but unless I got it right in sector 8 before the flagship I think I would sell it for the scrap more often than not.
If you toggle the power on hacking when the defence drone shoots, it should get through no problem. Defense Scrambler worth 40 scrap is pretty good tbh, most augments dont sell that high
@@jordanocallaghan5441 yup, I always do this. Some might consider it cheesy but it really just further trivializes defense scrambler on the flagship
Zoltan Shield bypass I feel should have been A teir. Taking out the Missiles in flagship stage 3 is so damn important, and the bypass gives you three ways to make that happen, (hacking, missiles/bombs, teleporter). If you believe in boarding, it's 100% worth considering a buy, which should put it above stuff like stealth weapons and FTL charge booster. In any run, you will face zoltan shields in a way that you cannot just run from, and you must have a means of dealing with them. More often than not the bypass will help you take on the final boss in a major way.
I agree with pretty much everything aside from Scrap Recovery Arm and Crystal Vengeance. Scrap Recovery Arm actually takes a lot of scrap to pay itself off, minimum 500 scrap, but probably more. I find it hard to justify parting with 50 scrap in the early game unless I'm running an OP ship, especially one with boarding, like Crystal B, Lanius B, or Mantis B. Still can be good, so I would probably just knock it down a tier or two. My main problem comes with Crystal Vengeance. It only has a 10% chance of firing when you take damage, meaning you have to take 10 damage (1/3 of your full health) on average to get one shot out of this. Adding on to that, it can be evaded, shot down by defense drones, and completely negated by ships with two shields, since it only pierces one layer of shields. You can't choose when to fire it, so you can't really work it into a full weapon salvo to get past two shields and if we're talking about when their shields are down, you should be able to beat them without it (maybe a really hard and stupid challenge run would be using only ions and crystal vengeance?). So the odds it makes a difference in a fight are very low in my opinion. Not to mention the most fundamental problem with the augment: it only occurs on crystal cruisers (or you can get it through the exceedingly rare crystal unlock quest). To me, both crystal cruisers are best served as boarding ships given the crystal crew's lockdown ability and especially Crystal B which starts with a 4 tile teleporter. I really don't want a random chance of hitting my own crew or destroying their ship while my crew are boarding. For these reasons, I would put it in the "Completely useless, possibly harmful" category, but 40 extra scrap from selling it at the first store is really nice, so I would bump it up to D tier I guess.
A completed run on average net you over 2500 scraps. There are 8 sectors which mean each sector give you about 300 scraps. They pay them self off in two sectors which is very quickly.
I say the Fire Suppression is absolutely a necessary buy for the Shivan (Rock B) because being able to put out fires without airlocks and without needing to send a slow Rockman to put it out is incredible.
Weapon preigniter + stealth weapons + chain vulcan will shred any ship in seconds. When you look at these augments standalone, there are generalities, but you need to evaluate builds as well
Scrap Recovery Arm is not worth buying at any level, even Easy. Ideally it’s supposed to pay for itself over the long-term, but given its cost of 50, that will take a total of 500 recovered scrap. Actually, it’s even more given that the 10% bonus on scrap rewards is rounded down to the nearest integer, so it’s more like 550 to 600.
But more importantly, in the early game, 50 scrap is way too valuable to waste on such a long-term investment. It’s MUCH better to use that scrap to upgrade Shields early on, or Engines, or buy that overpowered weapon that might show up early at the Store, or save up for something good like Cloaking, or overcome certain ship disadvantages like weak systems, etc. Early-game tempo matters much more than long-term “macroeconomics.”
I had a pretty awesome run with the explosive replicator. Not disagreeing with your tier list, but this happened to fall into my lap:
I had a ship with laser weapons, and I bought a nice artemis or whichever missile that fires twice, uses 1 missile, each missile is 2 damage, and it uses three power. And then I was using the missile weapon here and there, until I got the explosive replicator, and I found myself firing like 4 missiles per battle, firing the duplicate missile weapon twice, and only using 1 missile during the battle.
And since I was now heavily using missiles, I bought missiles in every store, and I had some 40 missiles saved up. Then I found ANOTHER missile launcher at 1 power, with a quick charge up time.
So now I was firing two missile weapons and like dual lasers or burst laser 2s, I forget which, at 8 power, and the missiles were costing me next to no missiles.
I beat the ever living shite out of the flagship and anything else in my way. The missiles being nearly free and firing so often made the run a joke.
The reasons why missiles suck are often limited to, they miss sometimes, and you run out.
Well, if you don't run out, and they fire a lot.... holy crap.
But yeah, unless your ship is in that specific situation, the explosive replicator probably is not that good. But wow, connect that thing to the multiple missile firing weapon which is already at half price, and make it quarter price on average? Maaaannnn....
Super niche. Great for Rock A, and when you're not relying on missile weapons and then get great missile weapons for free out of the clear blue sky, turning your ship into a good Rock A ship by mistake.
Hacking stun is good for boarding. Tele in right after the stun and you can cut down the person inside.
Defence scrambler is good if you are engi (all those anti drone defence drones get scrambled. Important cos thats most of your damage output) and also for rock A and C because you don’t want a large portion of your dmg output disappearing because they brought out 1 basic drone
For everyone else its a sell
Idk, I feel like while I agree stuff like shield charge booster and ion field are a positive, unless you're very late into a game, that 40 scrap often is just better thrown into a shield bubble or engines. I almost always sell them unless I'm on 3 shields 45% dodge
That was fast I just saw the day old comment suggesting this video.
Used hacking stun using breach and fire tactic would suffocate them/torch the as they couldn't repair the cracks and their companions wouldn't be able to break down the doors- but i understand it is VERY situational and isn't actually a boarding tactic :D
How about sectors tier list?
With all due respect I must say. Defense scrambler won me my most recent run. Let me paint you a picture, I was using zoltan type A and got quite unlucky with store and event rng. Here's my setup, I had the two starting weapons plus a fire beam as well as a defense drone 2. So I was very reliant on the hacking system I brought. And in the sector before the flagship I realised I had no way to defeat it with my current set up. And defense scrambler was my only way out. So I bought it, the hacking and the missles made it through the shield. And I won. So Yes it is niche. But when you need it You REALLY need it. I barely salvaged that run by buying hacking and defense scrambler. I don't think many of the other augments in c tier can win you the game like that.
Yeah nice one brother!
Pretty unimportant quip, but I don't see why emergency respirators is on a lower tier than fire suppression/slug repair gel. (at least if you vent all of your problems away)
(Btw I will now rant about how 75% of your problems can be solved by venting, which is why I think emergency respirators is much better)
Seriously though, emergency respirators is a much more versatile augument that can help against:
Fires (by venting the room),
Breaches (the consequence of not fixing them is a vented room),
Enemy crew (this is a big one IMO. If you can fight in a vented room, suddenly the normal 50/50 of who wins becomes skewed in your favor. The only other non-weapon factors that you can use to win is fighting skill/race, engi med-bot dispersal (your ship only + 1 power), and the medbay (one room only + power). Also, enemy crew on your ship will likely attack doors if they are in a vented room, which is actually extremely good if you want to kill them quickly with as little damage to your crew as possible),
Worse case senarios (the odds of you fixing either med/clone bay or oxygen or any other system deemed necessary before you suffocate is MUCH higher. Technically also true for your crew on enemy ships waiting for your teleporter, but unless you board a lanius ship, it rarely happens. Also you can now heal in a vented level 1 medbay.)
While the other auguments are only better in their one problem:
Fire suppression = one evacuated room > 3+ vented rooms,
Slug repair gel = free repair > one vented room.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think emergency respirators is crazy good. I mean, all it does is halve the penalty of being in vented rooms, and honestly, even with the reasons I mentioned above as to why I think it's better than fire suppression and repair gel, you never NEED to be in a vented room (unless worse case senario). While it can help, it is not at all necessary, along with fire suppresson and slug repair gel. I think all 3 auguments should have been in B tier.
I agree with most of the ratings, but I'd rate scrap recovery arm an A -- it's really nice to have, but you don't really need it. On Normal, once you're decent with the game, you're going to have tons of scrap by the late game. On hard, you don't get enough scrap to really make it worth it. I'd knock Pre-Ignitor to an A too, because it's expensive, and because some builds don't need it at all.
I'd put Rock Plating on B and System Casing on C. Since you often sell it (and so do I), it can't be that good right? You'd almost never sell the Zoltan shield because it's good. Crystal Vengeance is at most a C, or maybe D. It can cause you to lose your boarding crew if you're not careful, and the damage it deals is too little and too random to really help.
Hacking Stun can be useful on boarding runs i guess^^
rock plating protects against hull damage but not system damage, and titanium system casing is the opposite, it protects against system damage but not hull damage
I think everything from Slug repair gel to Crystal Vengeance should be a tier lower. These help you marginally when you are already taking damage, but they're not worth the slot compared against some of those things in B tier (basically all crew combat related), which I would bump up to A tier. Because I like boarding - it's my favorite strategy - I don't like the fiddlyness of it, though, and those augments help against that.
Very entertaining, i laughted my ass off.
Just gonna plonk my thoughts in here:
Defence Scrambler (C): I haven't exactly used this a lot, but for missile-reliant and hacking-reliant builds it can be really useful. Definitely better than not having it. I agree with C.
Shield Charge Booster (A): The problem is that burst damage is more of a thing in FTL than DoT. Sure it'd help against a Vulcan or some other, but I'd put it in C.
Reverse Ion Field (A): This can be really useful given the stun of ion weapons on shields. Let's face it, this is basically only useful against shields. B.
Automated Reload (A): Can't say I've used this a lot, but it's free weapon power. I agree with the A.
FTL Recharge Booster (B): I'd say C, because it can pay dividends if you have to run through Rebel-occupied territory in later sectors.
Weapon Pre-Igniter (S): I haven't used this a lot, but the long-recharge weapons instantly... yeah.
Fire Suppression (A): I classed this as a C "Don't buy but don't sell", because realistically fires _shouldn't_ be a problem. "Just Upgrade Engines" is what I'd say.
Lifeform Scanner (C): Potentially even a D. Just get a slug. Helpful in Nebulae without Slugs, but... why would you buy this?
Backup DNA Bank (B): S tier. It's irrelevant if you don't have a clone bay, but then why would you get it? It's saved my ass on more than one occasion.
Engi Med-bot Dispersal (B): S. Really Damn Useful for firefighting and (anti-)boarding. Obviously useless if you have a Clone Bay.
FTL Jammer (C): C. Situational, but can save your ass.
Stealth Weapons (B): Can't say I've used this a lot. I'm leaning towards a C.
Advanced FTL Navigation (C): B. It's niche, but if you have it you can plan for things. For example, hopping to shops halfway across the sector.
Explosive Replicator (B): I agree with the B ranking here - it usually stops me from having to worry when running mixed builds.
Distraction Buoys (B): C. Worth it if you have it.
Hacking Stun (D): D, unless you're doing a jank boarding strat on Flagship 1. This thing _can_ save your ass, but usually won't. Then again, there *will* be at least one time where you will lose a crewmember due to not having this.
Long-Ranged Scanners (S): S. GIMME!
Scrap Recovery Arm (S): S. GIMME!
Drone Recovery Arm (B): B. See Explosive Replicator.
Battery Charger (C): C. Who even uses the battery? Then again, see Hacking Stun.
Repair Arm (D): D. It can be useful, but this thing has lost me more runs than it's saved. It has saved runs for me, though.
Zoltan Shield Bypass (B): A. Flagship 3 is just _so much easier!_ I've lost more than one run to having too low of a DPS to break that damned shield.
Emergency Respirators (B): C. See Fire Suppression. You shouldn't need this. Engi Med-bots and Slug Repair Gel are almost always better. Then again, if a high-damage missile hits your door room...
Reconstructive Teleport (B): B, mostly because I overuse medbays.
Rock Plating (A): B, though be warned that it will inevitably save your ass.
Titanium System Coating (A): C, because this is... well, why?
Drone Reactor Booster (C): C, verging on D. Takes up a slot.
Slug Repair Gel (A): S. Breaches are hell to deal with unless you can afford to open up all the doors with a level 2 (or 3) oxygen room. Downright better than Emergency Respirators.
Mantis Pheromones (B): A. This is actually pretty useful, especially on large ships.
Crystal Vengeance (A) B, although it has a chance to be D.
Zoltan Shield (S): A. I find that this gets popped too quickly.
Damages Stasis Pod (D): D, but you go for it every time anyway because Crystals.
Qwwqwwqqwq
Drone reactor booster is the bestest augment, because 3 my repair drones can roll like crazy!
Medibots is almost S-tier. Giving zoltans(or anyone else for that matter) the ability to fight fires, fix breaches, or even combat enemy crew longer without risk of death and without leaving station, pretty much negates need for fire suppression, slug gel and can even hold out better without a decent anti-boarding team.
Providing I have adequate missile defense like a defense drone + hull repair and recovery arm, I’ve even went as far as trading out zoltan shields when my slots were full and/or trading out my clone bays for it. I’ve quite literally never lost a crew with medibot except from events choices by mistake.
Defense drones can target laser weapons and attack drones at higher levels. Defense scrambler isnt just good for missile weapon setups.
I only watch these tier list videos. do you also not bother upgrading cloak for the flagship so that it's always ready for the volley?
Does the damaged stasis pod really not do anything? No random event for it to be used?
its for the crystal unlock event, but otherwise it does nothing
So SRA is B tier at highest in my opinion, it takes a while to pay its cost back and its 50 scrap that can be better spent. The fact that it also rounds down means that is more like 8-9% extra scrap. A lot of the time its a trap and a weapon, system or ship upgrade is the winning play.
Long ranged scanners are by far the best augment imo, personally you might be overly scared of ion storms in nebulas but the pulsars are gross and nice to avoid.
Also pre-igniter is every tier, sometimes is perfect for your weapons but quite a lot of the time its not really required.
Note** What difficulty is the based on?
Trade Scrap Recovery for Repair Arm in Sector 7 if you haven't found anything better. It'll help you repair between flagship battles.
Just finished a Rock C run with two burst laser 2's, a Glaive beam and a pre-igniter. Most fights lasted about two seconds. Defense scrambler is definitely better than FTL Charge Booster, for Defense drone 2's alone. Charge booster is just 100% useless.
The purpose of "advanced ftl navigation" is to go get more scrap so you can come back and get a "Weapon Pre-igniter". That's about it. Otherwise, the only use I can think of is to find your way back from the far edge of a sector when it has a trap lane with only one path to the exit. Very rarely useful, and the times you use it, you are already getting screwed.
You didn't mention which augments stack and shield charge booster stacks.. so that really puts it up high.
automatic reload-er also stacks..
x3 of those with an ion burst mk2 is stupid OP.
Gonna have to disagree on Hacking Stun. It's not great, sure, but there are uses. Mainly, without Stun, the enemy can break out of the Hacked room, or put out fires, or repair breaches. It is the very definition of C tier that you have: Niche, but not useless. That being said, the descriptions of B and C tier are the same anyway lmao. Good video though. :)
Many good memories with this game. Thank you for inspiring me to restart it.
Generally very good tier list, but I have a few disagreements...
8:49 Say what you will, but I think sensors are crucial for planning boarding parties if you're doing any kind of teleporter build, or any other build where you're trying to eliminate the enemy crew. Frankly, I don't know how you would do such a build without upgraded sensors, since you want to see where each of the enemy crew are at all times, so you can plan how to take them out. The fact that you're saying sensors are "irrelevant" suggests to me that you don't do teleporter builds very much, in which case... I suggest you try it out some time. :) Teleporter builds are very profitable, because you get a lot more scrap when you can take the enemy ship intact.
9:23 I think you're generally underrating the clone bay here. I rarely have a game where I get to the end without one, because it negates the negative effects of like half of the game's random events, making it almost always profitable to have it. (I find it especially useful with teleporter builds, for keeping all your people alive, but I digress) With that in mind, the backup DNA bank is very useful, because the one big drawback of the clone bay is that if the enemy takes it out, all of your crew become very vulnerable. This negates that drawback.
24:17 I get the feeling you don't play on Hard difficulty much. :) I've had a number of games where the Repair Arm was a life-saver in the early stages, because you get very little scrap to begin with at that difficulty, so the Repair Arm takes very little of your scrap away, and actually ends up costing less to repair you than it would if you did at a store. Plus, since you're a lot more likely to take a beating at that difficulty, being able to repair out in the field is quite useful. I wouldn't necessarily carry it right to the end of the game, but I definitely wouldn't call it useless.
-Defense Scrambler: B Tier for me. Combat II drones are incredibly strong, and the main reason to get Drones most of the time. Missiles need help as it is, and this is that help. I will add that for certain ships it's incredibly valuable (Engi A, Zoltan C esp) esp if you haven't been blessed with good weapon drops.
-Shield Charge Booster: B Tier; borderline A tier. "Slightly more defensive" is an understatement. Because enemies stagger their attacks a lot, but gain tons of weapons/drones as the game goes on (more than you can ever equip, even!) this helps more than it appears once you're into Sector 3+. Remember: Every blocked shot is less scrap in repairs!
-Reverse Ion Field: Definitely A tier. Ions are rattlesnake weapons in FTL; subtly dangerous. I will add that this augment can block the Ion damage of pulsar events; giving you a MASSIVE advantage in battles there!
-Automated Reloader: A Tier; used to be S tier. There's a reason why this is the only augment in the game to ever receive a nerf.
-FTL Recharge Booster: Really hard to place since its effect is attainable by improving your engines (which you should, and must on Hard mode). I'd say C or B tier is appropriate since being able to better pick your fights is important. That said; you can't run from more than a few fights on Hard without risking too much scrap loss. Especially early on.
-Weapons Pre-Igniter: Lower B Tier, upper C tier. Yes, really. I have many reasons, but it boils down to its immense cost and reliance on high alpha weaponry to truly shine. It's nearly worthless when you can't kill/cripple the enemy in one volley, and cloaks hard counter it. Automated Reloader is less flashy, but far more reliable in protracted battles (esp the Rebel Flagship).
-Lifeform Scanner: In the entirety of my years of playing FTL (since release in 2012) I have never once found a use for this damned thing. Most ships get sensors, and those that don't (Slug Cruisers) get crew with psychic powers to achieve the same effect. Literally, what is the point of this augment? D Tier, for sure if not F Tier.
-Engi Medibot Dispersal: B Tier. It always runs at 25% of a level 1 Medbay (1.6 health/sec), regardless of what level the Medbay is. A potentially broken augment held back by that limitation, since in its basic state, it's fantastic for keeping your precious Zoltan crewmen alive from sustained weapons fire, or for crew who are fighting fires on the ship (when you can't reliably vent and need a system like shields/engines/weapons back ASAP) and gives you an unbeatable advantage in melee vs any opponent save massed Mantis boarders.
Sadly, because it doesn't scale with medbay level, Cloning Bays remain the superior choice 95% of the time.
-Fire Suppression: C tier. Most fires can be vented, and high level play runs vacuum most of the time anyway. That said, it's great for us lazier captains as fires are quite dangerous. It is most notably useful on the Rock B (Shivan) Cruiser as that ship uniquely has no external airlocks. (I have no idea how they get on/off the ship before transporters...which it doesn't start with either)
-Explosive Replicator: Your explanation is spot on. I just want to add that the Rock A and Slug B should have started with Explosive Replicator for their gimmicks, if only to ease some of the agony of playing those awful, awful ships.
-FTL Jammer: D Tier. If you need this Augment, you really need better offense and your scrap should be going towards that instead.
-Distraction Buoys: For Score Attack players: S tier. For everyone else, D tier. This is a pure score attack item since number of beacons you visit adds to your base score (IIRC, it's like 20-30 points per beacon, with some caveats) If you don't care about score attack, it's virtually useless.
-Hacking Stun: C Tier for boarding strats. D Tier for everyone else. You're missing the true purpose of this augment: To isolate whatever section you're going to teleport to so you can ensure kills there while keeping repair/fire teams out. Otherwise; it's really, really bad.
-Long Range Scanners: Spot on analysis. High A Tier if not S tier for sure. For the hardest ships, their drawbacks are magnified vs all hazards (re: Stealth C in an Asteroid Field; basically a no-win scenario). This helps avoid those bad spots outright, while telling you where ships are. It's just a great source of info that takes some of the random goofbane element out of the game, and for a low price no less!
-Scrap Recovery Arm: S Tier on Easy/Normal. F Tier on Hard. Yes, really.
There's an excellent mathematical analysis on the Scrap Recovery Arm out there that explains why, but it boils down to the huge difference in the value of scrap available on Hard vs the two easier difficulties. You'll rarely break even when buying it, even from Sector 1-3, and even when you do you always deprive yourself of some of your precious Total Scrap for that run in doing so.
The margins for victory on Hard are very slim, and this eats into them when you buy it (obviously, it's a godsend if you get it for free).
-Drone Recovery Arm: B Tier. A great augment for an underpowered system (Drones). I like it on ships with only three weapon slots since Drones are a very strong support weapon where you can't just lolblap with Flak/Bursts. Also excellent with Defense/Shield Drones. Useless otherwise.
-Battery Charger: C Tier. Backup Battery is a phenomenally good subsystem and not to be taken lightly. Extra power that goes beyond your reactor is incredible for all sorts of late game scenarios; especially the Flagship fights. Increasing your effective reactor cap for say, Engines while running self ionizing systems like Cloak/Hacking/Transporter (all common counters vs Flagship) is great since the Battery will give you more power during the time those other systems are on ionized-cooldown (read: hogging power uselessly).
All that said, the subsystem is far better than its augment. Because Backup Battery is a late-game specialized subsystem, chances are good you have better augments available, and not enough Aug slots left.
-Repair Arm: DITCH ASAP. Biggest newb trap in the game. If it took 5% instead of 15%, it'd be much, much better since that's better than most shop repair rates. As it is though, it's dreafully bad and costs you more scrap than it's worth. It punishes good players too; don't get your ass kicked and it's a pure detriment.
-Zoltan Shield Bypass: Solid B tier. Not C Tier solely because of how powerful boarding strats are. Other than that, I have nothing to add to what you said.
-Emergency Respirators: Easy D tier for me. Great vs boarders and for fixing hull breaches. Not much else. You should be selectively venting rooms and not relying on this augment over your Medbay/Cloning every time. Only decent vs Lanius boarders, who are so rare that they're virtually non-existent threats anyway.
-Reconstructive Teleport: One of my pet favorite augmentations. A-Tier for ships that start with boarding strats; doubly so with Cloning, since you can use teleports to cheekily heal your crew while attacking.
-Rock Plating: Fantastic augment and the sole saving grace of the Rock A cruiser. At least B Tier if not A Tier since it saves scrap every time it procs.
-Titanium Casing: C Tier. Chance is too low to rely on and unlike Rock Plating, it doesn't save scrap.
-Drone Reactor Booster: D tier. Impacts a tiny number of drones in the game, all of which are already niche. Barely more useful than Lifeform Scanners. Only reason it isn't F tier is because it has no drawback.
-Slug Repair Gel: Good augment. B-tier. Breaches aren't all that dangerous if you're used to vacuum strats since they're so rare.
-Mantis Pheromones: It makes all crew move faster. Incredibly useful for Engis, Rock and Crystal crewmen. Utterly useless otherwise. Sadly, it's exclusive to Mantis ships, whose crews need them the least. Tier D.
-Crystal Vengeance: F Tier. Selling fodder and little else. If you're playing well/optimally, it will almost never proc.
Why F Tier? Because the Crystal B cruiser starts with it and runs contrary to its starting strat (Boarding). Boarding strats want to avoid inflicting hull damage where possible, especially while their boarding crew are on the enemy ship. Having a source of damage you can't control randomly whacking the enemy ship while you're working the crew over is bad and potentially catastrophic.
-Zoltan Shield: Agreed. It's insanely good, pretty much everywhere and unlike every other defensive system in the game, it doesn't cost Reactor to use. Easily the best Augmentation in the game.
-Damaged Stasis Pod: Unranked, since it's obviously only used for a single quest. Granted, that quest unlocks two fantastic ships.
Augments that are actually worth buying on hard difficulty: Long Range Scanners, Weapons Pre-igniter, Ion shield, reconstructive teleporter (if you have a cloning bay)
I clear the whole game on Hard without a singel lose, in my opinion Distraction Buoys is A - S buy it if you got space sell it if you got something usefull for the slot.
Stealth Weapons (50 Scrap) are Endgame Perfect setup also Auto Relouder ( 40 Scrap )x 2, Weapon Pre - ignator (B) is situational at best also the Price 120 suck.
Rock Plating and Titanium Casing are bouth C they are good to sell :)
Revers ion Field B if you get it for Free its nice to have i would not waist Scrap on it.
In General there are just x items worth to spend on.
Scrap Recovery Arm, Long Range Scanners, Distraction Buoys // if place, resell if you get something usefull
Stealth Weapons, Automated relouder // Endgame items
Drone Recovery Arm // is very situational for Engi Cruiser Endgame setup
all other is more or less meeeeh
Hard disagree on distraction buoys. If you managed to get it in sector 1 you're getting six extra jumps - that's about half an extra sector's worth of opportunities for scrap, useful blue events, you name it. It's even more jumps if you decide to stack up on nebula sectors, since the delayed fleet jumping (which is 70% even in dedicated nebula sectors) means you can chain together a lot of extra opportunities. One standard battle for six jumps will net you enough scrap for a high-tier system upgrade, a great weapon, or something like a pre-igniter. Plus, once you get to Sector 8, you can just sell it - job is done, and maybe use the scrap to push you over into a great final upgrade.
I got the Zoltan Shield on my Engi run. Had a lvl 3 burst laser and a Halberd Beam. Literally the easiest flagship run ever.
Slug Repair Gel should do 2 extra things, heal slugs each jump like the clone bay, and healing the ship hull by 2 each sector jump.
Mantis Pheromones should really upgrade both attack and movement speed by 50% on your ship, and 25% on enemy ship, making it a must on boarding builds.
Personally I would knock Scrap Recovery Arm and Long Range Scanners down to A tier. I wouldn't say either of them make or break runs, and they're most effective if you can find them early game.
I'd take most everything over hacking stun, but as a fan of fire bomb/beam, it can really add in-jury to injury...
Also, if you use Lanius, any stun while in the same room with them is likely a crew kill.